Holocaust’s Untold Muslim Heroes
Family of Ali and Nadia Kazazi
Their story is rarely told, but Albanian Muslims took in fleeing Jews during World War II, saving thousands of lives.
An untold story is raising greater awareness about the Muslim faith and the teachings of the Quran. That awareness comes from an unlikely source: a small Jewish congregation in Creve Coeur. While Americans have been massively propagandized to believe that Muslims are virulent anti-Semitics, the fact remains that Albanian Muslims saved at least 2,000 Jews–at peril to their own lives–during the Holocaust.
Even more remarkably, they didn’t hand over a single Jew to the killers of the SS and Wehrmacht. When no other European country dared to withstand the wrath of Nazi Germany, it was the Muslims of Albania who saved a large number of Jewish people from extermination.
Temple Emanuel is premiering a groundbreaking exhibit of photos that reveals Albanian Muslims who saved 2,000 Jews during World War II.
It’s a story you’ve likely never heard. It is a story told through the faces of Albanian Muslims who risked their own lives to live by a code of faith and honor called Besa.
Dr. Ghazala Hayat is a neurologist at St. Louis University and serves as spokesperson for the Islamic Foundation of Greater Saint Louis.
Hayat said while Besa is an Albanian word, it is part of Islamic culture and teachings. According to Dr. Hayat, Besa is an ancient code which requires people to endanger their own lives if necessary to save the life of anyone seeking asylum. To this day, Besa is the highest moral law of the region, superseding religious differences, blood feuds, and even tribal traditions.
The exhibit is opening eyes throughout the world.
“You don’t have to share the same faith. You have to respect each other’s faith,” Hayat said.
Pictures of the Albanian Muslims in the exhibit tell a lifetime of stories. As a young mother, one woman did not have enough breast milk to feed her son. A Jewish woman she hid nursed him instead. She was asked if she minded that a Jewish mother had fed her baby.
“Jews are God’s people like us,” the woman said.
Another man who also hid Jewish families said, “I did nothing special. All Jews are our brothers.”
And the head of the Bektashi sect, with more than seven million followers, tells the story of Albania’s prime minister, who gave a secret order during the Nazi occupation.
“All Jewish children will sleep with your children, all will eat the same food, and all will live as one family,” the order read.
In post-war Europe, it is said Albania was the only Nazi-occupied country to boast a greater number of Jews than before the Holocaust.
“They were among the people who at great personal risk sheltered Jews and protected them in their homes and did so out of a religious obligation,” said Rabbi Justin Kerber, Temple Emanuel.
The Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis and several local Jewish agencies hope the St. Louis community will experience this rare look at the role Albanian Muslims played in sheltering Jews from the Nazis.
“At this time of tension over Islam in America, there is so much more to understanding Islam,” Rabbi Kerber said.
Norman Gershman is an American Jewish photographer who has documented the history of Muslims in Albania and the Jews they saved in a remarkable book, Besa: Muslims Who Saved Jews in World War II. With collaborator Stuart Huck he has also produced a 90-minute documentary about the heroism of Albanian Muslims.
Gershman’s work is an attempt at building bridges between Muslims and people of Jewish faith. Gershman sees his calling as finding and honoring families who saved Jews, regardless of their religious heritage or cultural background. “Look, you’re not talking to someone who is pro-Arab. It’s really quite simply that there are good people in this world. I found Muslims who saved Jews. The perception of the religion of Islam as crazy is nonsense.
I am a Jew to my core. I would lay down my life for Israel … However, we have objectified Muslims. They are just people. And in this little people [Albanians], they have a message for the world. I defy anyone to look at these people and say these are terrorists or terrorist sympathizers.”
A full-length documentary, based on Gershman’s work, will soon be in theaters.
Gershman’s work is an attempt at building bridges between Muslims and people of Jewish faith.
“Islam and Judaism are Abrahamic faiths, and we have lot of things in common,” said Dr. Aziz Siddiqui, president of the Islamic Society of Greater Houston. “We must strive to highlight these as Gershman has done and avoid everything that tends to divide us.”
The BESA exhibition at Temple Emanuel is October 21- December 1, 2010; 12166 Conway Road, Thursday 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, 12 p.m. to 4pm and by appointment.
For more information, contact Gail at gail@testl.org or call 314-432-5877.
Sources:
1. Albanian Muslims risk their own lives to save Jews from Nazis during World War II by Leisa Zigman 20 October 2010
http://www.ksdk.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=222601&catid=3
2. Albanian Muslims saved Jews from Nazis January 26 2010 by richard brenneman
http://richardbrenneman.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/albanian-muslims-saved-jews-from-nazis/
3. Holocaust’s untold heroes By SHAHZADA IRFANHOUSTON CHRONICLE, Aug. 28, 2009
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6592238.html
4. Besa, Albanian Muslims took vow to save Jews by Toby Tabachnick
http://www.thejewishchronicle.net/pa…s_right&open=&
http://www.albanian.com/v4/showthread.php?t=26005
Picture: http://www.eyecontactfoundation.org/Besa/Ali_Nadia_Kazazi
Extracted from: KSDK.com; Houston Chronicle and The Jewish Chronicle and set to khutbahbank by Adam I Seedat, owner of adamslist[at]googlegroups.com